Monday, November 28, 2022

Qatar 2022 World Cup: When Israeli reporters faced the naked truth

One week passed after the start of the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

For the first couple of days, we had this rainbow controversy that faded away, the Iranian national team saga and the Serbian national football that made it clear it won’t surrender Kosovo.

We also had a bunch of Israeli reporters covering the Mondial who are shocked to see that they are being met coldly by Arab fans attending the great world event that is being hosted by an Arab country for the first time.

Israeli media in Qatar
Palestinian flags stalked Israeli reporters at the World Cup in Qatar

Arab fans made sure that Palestine reach Israeli households as it seems in the first week of the World Cup.

Here was the correspondent of Israeli public correspondent Corp “Kan” attempting to have an interview with a Qatari vender in a Qatari bazaar in some local market and the young man refuses.


 Despite Qatar did not sign an agreement with Israel yet it has had open and old relations with Tel Aviv since the mid-1990s.

Also, despite the deep official relations between Qatar and Israel that made the Gulf nation one of the main mediators in Palestine along with Egypt due to its connections with Islamist movements, Qatari people stand with Palestinian relations and support the boycott of relations with Israel.

Here was the correspondent of Israeli 12 TV told by a group of Lebanese fans that “There is nothing called Israel, it is Palestine” after leaving as they knew that he is from Israel.

He did not present himself first, he spoke with him in Arabic.

I do not need to speak about Lebanese Israeli relations and how Israel invaded Lebanon shortly after where horrifying massacres took place or how since 1967 it has been occupying the famous Shabaa farms nor how it invaded South Lebanon for years till it withdrew from it 2000.

Then we got the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel where not less than 1,000 Lebanese civilians were killed so technically speaking it won’t be easy because forget Hezbollah and Amal movement, there are apolitical civilians for lost beloved ones by Israeli missiles.

Media and Music correspondent “Not the sports correspondent” Rez Shechink at Yedioth Ahronoth Raz Shared a video documenting his experience in a long thread in Hebrew.

Now the Israeli reporters say that they claim to be from Ecuador to avoid the anger of Arab fans despite they are being exposed because of their ID cards and the channel stickers.

Israeli reporters had hopes that the Saudi fans would be nicer because of how the Saudi mainstream media, which is controlled by MBS and co is doing its best to whitewash Israel to pave the way for any future agreement.

On Twitter, Saudi political troll bots aka “e-flies as late Jamal Khashoggi used to call them” demonize and trivialize the Palestinian issue and suffering as if it were the reason why Saudi Arabia suffered socially!!

There are a bunch of Saudi journalists who travel to Israel and speak to Israeli media all the time, so it seems that Israeli reporters were surprised to see how the real Saudis act in real life.

Israeli N12 channel correspondent meets a bunch of Saudi fans chanting “Palestine” and he fires back telling them “Israel is a reality”.

Then we got this heated confrontation between a Saudi fan and an Israeli reporter.

I think the same reporter faced the same rejection from some Iranian fans too!!

 Even Egyptian fans, I have seen a clip where a young Egyptian seemed to be okay to have an interview on air with an Israeli channel back in Tel Aviv and once he was on the air, he said "Viva Palestine" and left the reporter on air alone. 

Israel Hayoum Sports reporters Dor Hofman complained about how he and his crew were kicked off a taxi and a restaurant after knowing that they are Israelis.

“It is a stinky day,” he said, and I knew that stinky day in Hebrew is exactly the same phrase in Arabic

Israel is not participating in this World Cup. It has never participated.

Now, none of those Israeli correspondents dared to explain to the Israeli people why they are not received warmly at all in Qatar by Arab fans.

It has to do with the lost basic human rights of the Palestinian people and the fact that Israel is still occupying Arab territories according to the United Nation which it must withdraw from immediately according to the very old 242 security council resolution. “How many world cups passed since then !?”

It has to do with the fact that there are daily threats by radical Jewish settlers and figures including members of the current Israeli cabinet to attack and demolish Islam’s second holiest place.

It has to do with the fact that many Palestinian civilians are killed like a popular TV figure Shireen Abu Akleh by the hands of Israeli occupation forces and settlers with no accountability whatsoever. 

It has to do with the fact that Israel is a true apartheid state.

It has to do with the fact that the Israeli government does not really care for the Arab people and cares more for the Arab regimes or rather the authoritarian Arab regimes over the Arab people.

The Israeli government and media sold to the Israeli public as it seems that after signing those Abrahamic accords peace will prevail in the Middle East and the Israeli people will be welcomed warmly but they forgot that they signed the accords with authoritarian regimes that did not take their own people’s opinion for real in such important decisions like in any other nation.

Sudan was forced to sign the accords and recognize Israel by Donald Trump to lift an unjust economic blockade. It was more blackmail than any other thing. Now the Israeli government is working in a shy way with a bunch of Sudanese generals who can’t be stomached by the young Sudanese people or by the West. “Israel has never had a problem in dealing with African military autocrats on the contrary”

Bahraini people also express their rejection of the normalization of relations with Israel publicly openly whether the opposition or members of the Ruling Royal Family "See how the authority employees farewelled her” despite all those agreements between the two governments and despite the prices they have to pay.

If you think again, you will find Israeli government by taking those regimes’ side is making sure to win the hatred of the Arab people for several generations even without wars.

Maybe Israeli media was more honest in sharing the truth about what is happening to the Palestinians, and maybe things would have been different. 

When I told my aunt about what happened to the Israeli reporters in Qatar, She told me wisely this could have been avoided if Israel was truly committed to Peace and gave the Palestinians their rights. 

My aunt believes President Sadat did the right thing with the Peace agreement and that the Arab leaders had a better chance to restore our lands then.

Now Israeli reporters are sad that the Arab people are hateful unlike their autocratic regimes and peace is hard in the Middle East but actually, there is hope for peace in the Middle East between other peoples.

For instance the Moroccan and Algerian people (and they have not forgotten Palestine)

Morocco, Algeria and Palestine
Moroccans and Algerians are one hand with the flag
of Palestine in between 

For instance the Saudi and Iranian people. 

Here are Saudi People celebrating with Iranian people after their game with Wales and everybody is happy.

Saudi fans with an Iranian fan
Saudi fans with an Iranian fan 

I guess this gives anyone hope real and actually shows you the power of sports. 

Aside from politics and the hard time the Israeli reporters are facing "as a reporter personally I can feel how bad it is but I do not imagine what they were thinking", the first week was also fun in the World Cup in Qatar to the level I feel really sad that Egypt was not qualified and we did not join this big party there. 

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1 comment:

  1. Anonymous12/01/2022 04:10:00 PM

    You don't know a single Jewish person. You are full of hate. It scares me.

    ReplyDelete

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